Got my 260GTX back From Viper John

Crosshairs

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Well, not yet as I'm not home till Friday, but it will be there waiting for me..;)

Ill post up some pics when I get home, but for now, here are some he sent me...
These are the same ones that are on his website, as my card was the first one he did..

GTX260216ShaderTop.jpg

GTX260216ShaderRear.jpg

GTX260216ShaderFront.jpg



It pulled an 18265 3DM06 before I sent it, so Ill see what it does now when I get it installed this weekend


EDIT: its BIOS modded to boot at 729Mhz Core ROP
1458Mhz Core Shader
1216Mhz Memory
It goes higher, but he usually is a bit on the safe side when flashing clockspeeds
 
let me know who those ram sinks hold up temp wise, I heard people were having heat problems wiht those while tyring to overclock or do thigns like folding. I ended up just buying a uni-sink and modding it to work wiht my mcw60 and it works wonderfully.
 
Nasty. What was the bill?
Johns work is pricey....but quality always is..:D


let me know who those ram sinks hold up temp wise, I heard people were having heat problems wiht those while tyring to overclock or do thigns like folding. I ended up just buying a uni-sink and modding it to work wiht my mcw60 and it works wonderfully.

Ill keep you posted , but I don't anticipate any problems..
I have had several cards done with him in the past, and never had an issue with the sinks coming off.
he does not use the standard TIM with the cheap adhesive.
 
Ya, im sure they will stay on fine and im sure he does fine work, im just saying I heard people were having heat problems with the 260/280 when using ram sinks, mind you he installed a fan on some of them so mabey that will remedy it. Either way it looks nice.
 
Ya, im sure they will stay on fine and im sure he does fine work, im just saying I heard people were having heat problems with the 260/280 when using ram sinks, mind you he installed a fan on some of them so mabey that will remedy it. Either way it looks nice.
Ah, I misunderstood you.I thought you were saying that people were having them fall off....:)
 
The first pic looks like a battleship or something.
Sweet stuff as usual...I am thinking on doing my 280 as well.
 
Damn sweet looking card. :) I'm amazed how small it actually looks without being encased in the stock cooler box.
 
Must be about $150 or so. Worth it if you want it quiet and cool and clocked like that. I always have gone aftermarket air cooling myself though.
 
Because they are far less efficient???

really? Forgive me because I don't watercool, but I don't see how it would be less efficient. It would just equalize the temps of your ram and your GPU, and put a higher load on your radiator, but it should keep your mem much cooler.
 
If you had a price that would be nice... ;)
For my card the total was $300.00..Like I said pricey...

I paid $300.00 for the card and $300.00 for the mods..
Had I taken the waterblock off my 8800GTX the price would have been a lot less, but I wanted to keep that card complete and sell it that way. .
I also could have bought a 280GTX for that price but I didn't want one...so lets not go there

John has done just about all of my cards so far.... an X800 an X850 an X1900XT, a 7900GTX my 8800GTX and now this card.

His work is not cheap, and its not for everyone.
you could easily buy another card and run SLI most times for the price of the mods, but that's not my thing.
I didn't post the price before, because about 2 years ago I had a thread about my X850XT and 2 or 3 of the posters just wanted to keep telling me how I wasted my money...
So let me say ahead of time, I'm not interested in an economics lesson..I have plenty of money and I like to spend it.:)
back on topic.....

John does phenomenal work, he is known throughout the community for his skill and knowledge on video card mods.
I'm strong believer in quality work and I'm not afraid to pay for it.
I really cant wait to get home tomorrow and install the card and see how it performs...
 
John does phenomenal work, he is known throughout the community for his skill and knowledge on video card mods.
I'm strong believer in quality work and I'm not afraid to pay for it.
I really cant wait to get home tomorrow and install the card and see how it performs...


And quality is hard to find these days.
 
It pulled an 18265 3DM06 before I sent it, so Ill see what it does now when I get it installed this weekend

I'd be more interrested in real world gaming results than (sorry) useless 3Dmark numbers.

Nice mod though.
 
Your $$ man. So long as you dig it. I would pay that for a 280 modded if I had WC gear.
 
I'd be more interrested in real world gaming results than (sorry) useless 3Dmark numbers.

Nice mod though.

I feel the same way..I don't rely on the scores for anything except comparison between configurations.

I know what my base score was with the stock card, so I can run it again and see where I am now.

weather or not that translates into real world improvements is another story..:)
 
I love Viper John's work...if you've got the cash it's money well spent. Can't wait to see what the card does for you.

Remember lots of pics! :D
 
I love Viper John's work...if you've got the cash it's money well spent. Can't wait to see what the card does for you.

Remember lots of pics! :D
Thanks, Ill have plenty of pics and what not tomorrow night or Saturday morning.
 
Do I see a custom made waterblock by ViperJohn ?

Looks nice and I'm sure it will perform great like all his work on video cards ;)

 
Do I see a custom made waterblock by ViperJohn ?




Why yes, yes you do..:)
I have pretty much the same block on my 8800GTX .
he made that one also...I could have had him use that one to save a few bucks, but he would have needed to redrill the fin chamber as the bolt holes for the G80 and G200 are different.
I opted to keep my 8800GTX as is,and sell it modded, because with the voltmods and clockspeeds it runs, there is no safe way to go back to air cooling on that card .
 
nice stuff... I'm curious what clocks you pull on it now.. with a volt mod and wc the core should hit 800 now I would think.. wondering what the shaders will hit also... anyways.. looks slick. have fun with it. :)
 
... I'm not interested in an economics lesson..

John does phenomenal work, he is known throughout the community for his skill and knowledge on video card mods.

I'm strong believer in quality work and I'm not afraid to pay for it.
I really cant wait to get home tomorrow and install the card and see how it performs...

Too bad you are not interested in "economics", because for $300.00 that is an amazing value by any [H]ard standard!!!!

As an enthusiast I see a lot more value and desirability in you card than a GTX 280 SLI setup.

Yes I prefer your single unique GTX 260 to a dual GTX 280 setup.

Congrats and thank you so much for sharing.
 
Would it not have made more sense going to a GTX280 and clocking it up yourself, than the 260 with a 300$ volt mod?

Oh, just read your post where you said you didn't want one... Any indication of why?

Man, I should really get into the volt modding business :eek:

PS: The 8800GS is folding along nicely :D



 
thanks guys, here are some crappy pics..ill try and get better ones but my camera and my camera skill both suck..:)

he gave me some free hose :)
one tight bend hose and 5ft of regular hose ..Im gonna redo my loop this weekend...wish me luck.

260GTX002.jpg


Top of the card

260GTX003.jpg


the vmem adjustment pot and the memory fan header he put on

260GTX004.jpg

A close up of the vmem adjustment pot
260GTX005.jpg

the card and the old cooler..
260GTX006.jpg



As far as clocks, its BIOS modded to boot at 729Mhz Core ROP
1458Mhz Core Shader and 1216Mhz Memory...he is always moderate with the bios as what works in one system might not work in another depending on your cooling and what not....so he always goes a bit low...

i will certainly play with it over the weekend and see how high i can get in my rig..ill keep everyone posted..:)
 
While I appreciate and admire the craftsmanship of Viper's work, that $300 could of went
towards another GTX260. You got to remember that water cooling the card isn't going to
give you a performance boost...but another GTX260 will. Plus you also must remember
that these cards are built to handle high temps...and my GTX260 that's factory oc'd to 620mhz
gets 40-45c idle and 60-65c load temps as it is...so it's quite apparent that nvidia's stock
cooling design is extremely good. $300 seems overpriced for an aftermarket cooling
solution. I'm anticipating Thermalright's 200 series cooler though.
 
I wouldn't have spent my money they way you did Crosshairs, however unlike the guy above me I read your post about it was they way YOU wanted to spend your money. It's your money and you can spend it however you feel fit. It is afterall YOUR money. ;)
 
I wouldn't have spent my money they way you did Crosshairs, however unlike the guy above me I read your post about it was they way YOU wanted to spend your money. It's your money and you can spend it however you feel fit. It is afterall YOUR money. ;)

It's just fun to push whatever hardware you have to its absolute limits. Sure, the OP could have bought a GTX 280 and it might be faster, but that's not the point. A lot of people buy slow CPUs, overclock and then water cool. When you factor in the cost of a water cooling loop, it would oftentimes be more cost effective to have just bought a faster CPU in the first place, but then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of a fully tweaked system running at it's maximum potential.

Back in the Geforce 6800 / 7800 days, I spent a bit too much on cooling mods for my cards, and even though it didn't ultimately make my games run much faster it was just fun. And that's just it--I think fun is the point of having a nice GPU in the first place, since they're used for games... so if part of the fun comes from getting crazy volt and water cooling mods then it's totally worth the money. Even if it's not the fastest thing on the planet, catch my drift?
 
It's just fun to push whatever hardware you have to its absolute limits. Sure, the OP could have bought a GTX 280 and it might be faster, but that's not the point. A lot of people buy slow CPUs, overclock and then water cool. When you factor in the cost of a water cooling loop, it would oftentimes be more cost effective to have just bought a faster CPU in the first place, but then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of a fully tweaked system running at it's maximum potential.

Back in the Geforce 6800 / 7800 days, I spent a bit too much on cooling mods for my cards, and even though it didn't ultimately make my games run much faster it was just fun. And that's just it--I think fun is the point of having a nice GPU in the first place, since they're used for games... so if part of the fun comes from getting crazy volt and water cooling mods then it's totally worth the money. Even if it's not the fastest thing on the planet, catch my drift?

Oh pushing stuff faster is a hell of a lot of fun. Frankly, I probably would have modded my 780i GTLVREF lanes by now if I could get some information on how to do it, but I can't seem to find any. :(
 
OK, got it installed....and re did my water loop...
that's enough for tonight..
ill run some benchmarks tomorrow....I'm tired..:)

260GTX007.jpg


260GTX008.jpg


260GTX009.jpg


260GTX010.jpg


GPUz-2.jpg
 
I know it's your money but my God what a waste.

I picked up a FuZion GFX2 that came with the GT 200 series plate. Put some ram sinks on the memory and sinks on the VRMs. Mine is doing 756 core, 1566 shader and 1242 Memory. All for a total of $250.

I really really really hope you enjoy that $600 card :rolleyes: Btw I've got an island for sale...
 
Doing a mod myself, I can understand. Paying for a better part, I can understand. But paying the price of another card for someone to do a mod for me...sorry, does not compute.
 
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